SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/16/2017
11:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Sovereign Work of the Spirit
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 8:25-26
Message of the
verses: “25 So, when they had
solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to
Jerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. 26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip
saying, "Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to
Gaza." (This is a desert road.)”
I have stated on many occasions in my Spiritual Diaries
that salvation is a work of God, as God has chosen people in eternity past, the
Lord Jesus Christ came to earth to die for our sins, and then the Spirit of God
gives an effectual call that we cannot say no to and we become born again
believers in Jesus Christ. The question
comes up as to why or what are the barriers that keep man from grasping God’s
salvation by his own efforts, and this is a good question and one that a person
who has been born again wonders about, especially after that person has just
experienced salvation. The first reason
why a person cannot understand the truths of salvation and be saved by his own
efforts is seen in Ephesians 2:1 which states “And you were dead in your
trespasses and sins.” I had a friend at
work that used to tell me all the time that he was born wrong, and even though
he was not saying this because he knew that he was born spiritually dead his
words about being born wrong still stick in my heart. So we see that we are born into this world
physically alive, but spiritually dead.
Another story I have told is one asked to a undertaker who was asked if
when he was in the process of dressing one of his clients if he had ever asked
him what color tie he wanted to wear. I
have a couple of friends who are undertakers and I made this point to one of
them a couple of weeks ago and he told me that he had a few of his clients move
around, but never did any of them tell him anything. Dead people do not talk and spiritually dead
people are unable to respond to spiritual stimuli. “Dead men don’t believe.”
Jesus said the following in John 6:44 “"No one can
come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on
the last day.” Paul writes the following
in 1 Corinthians 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them,
because they are spiritually appraised.”
MacArthur adds “Consequently, the preaching of the gospel, apart from
the quickening work of the Spirit, is perceived as nothing but a ‘stumbling
block,’ and ‘foolishness’ (1 Cor. 1:23).”
Second reason can be found in 2 Cor. 4:3-4 “3 And even if
our gospel is veiled, it
is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has
blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Satan and his demons are actively involved in
keeping men from finding God’s truth. In
one of our Lord’s parables found in Matthew chapter thirteen where we read
about the parable of the sower we see that first of all the man went out to sow
seed and some fell on the rocky soil where the birds of the air came and ate
the seed. Similarly Satan and his demons
do the same when the gospel is given and as a result we read in verse 19 “19 "When anyone hears the word of the
kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what
has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the
road.”
Concluding this thought John MacArthur writes “In light
of those truths, it is ludicrous to assume that anyone, apart from the work of
the Holy Spirit in his or her lifeless soul, could ever come to saving faith in
Christ. Man cannot climb the barriers
separating him from God. Sovereignly,
God, in His love and mercy, must reach out to man. If He did not do so, no one could ever be
saved.”
With all of this said I think because tomorrow is Sunday
and I try to have a shorter SD on Sunday’s because of all that is going on I
will talk about our verses in that SD as we did not have a chance to talk about
them today.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I do not
completely understand all about God’s sovereign will, but by faith I do believe
that on that warm January day as I was vacationing in Florida God called me to
salvation and my life has never been the same.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to get my thoughts together as
I prepare for my Sunday school lesson for tomorrow.
Memory verses: Philippians 4:1, 8 “Therefore, my beloved brethren
whom I long to see, my joy and my crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my
beloved.” “Finally, brethren, whatever
is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever
is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and anything
worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Elisabeth” (Luke 1:5).
Today’s Bible
question: “What book of the Bible has
much to say about the use of one’s tongue?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/16/2017 11:39 AM
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